Political notebook: Opinion toll

Last week, The Telegraph asked people on Facebook, “What grade would you give President Obama for his work in 2014?”

A reporter’s tally of proposed letter grades that seemed to be offered honestly showed 24 F’s, 11 A’s, 3 B’s, 2 C’s and not a single D. The actual grades proposed ranged from Eric C. Rodgers’ A++ to an F- first offered by Edward Johnson.

There just weren’t many opinions in the middle of the range. Obviously, results were not scientific.

For that, you might pop online to look at the Gallup Presidential Job Approval Center. Annoy relatives on both sides of the political fence by comparing Obama’s approval ratings history to those of Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.

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Sen. Saxby Chambliss helped provide oversight for America’s intelligence services, but he told The Telegraph and Georgia Public Broadcasting that he didn’t have quite as much oversight of his Macon-based representative, Bill Stembridge.

“Bill lives in a more secret world than I do,” Chambliss said.

“He refuses to tell me who he’s dating, and I have the CIA working on that constantly.”

HEALING MACON

The annual civic prayer breakfast returns to Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church early next year.

The breakfast is scheduled to run from 8-10 a.m. Jan. 3 at the church, 2789 Millerfield Road, Macon, with a theme of Healing Our City Through Prayer. The church is led by former county commissioner Lonzy Edwards.

HEALTHY NUMBERS

Insure GA, an effort by the Macon-based Community Health Works to help people enroll in insurance under the Affordable Care Act, has been doing well.

Spokeswoman Katie Smoak said last week that statistics showed the organization had hosted more than 200 events and helped nearly 1,000 consumers. Though the deadline has passed to get insurance by Jan. 1, open enrollment for later insurance dates runs through Feb. 15. Smoak said in an email that consumers tend to wait until the last minute, but they shouldn’t delay.

Smoak said Insure GA’s feedback included, “Two navigators got on the phone with me at 10:45 and walked me through ALL the options. We finally wrapped up at 12:15 pm!!! Wow! 2 dedicated people on a call for 2.5 hours at zero cost!!”

Help to Georgians is available through www.insurega.org or 866-988-8246. The federal counterparts are HealthCare.gov and 800-318-2596.

TO-DO IN PERRY

Perry City Council members already have a couple things on their agenda for January, Mayor Jimmy Faircloth said.

Faircloth didn’t want City Council members to address the city clerk’s position until the whole council was present. Phyllis Bynum-Grace was absent for the final December meeting, and the city’s leaders have to resolve issues including how and from whom duties would be transferred. The city has budgeted for the position.

The City Council will also need to select a mayor pro tem. Randall Walker holds the post.

MOVING ALONG

NewTown Macon’s trolleys were getting worn out running people between Mercer University and downtown Macon. So the Macon-Bibb County Transit Authority will take over with regularly scheduled transit buses, said General Manager Rick Jones, who said the runs are paid for by the university.

“They pay for it, so we just furnish the bus, and we can furnish a bigger bus and keep a newer one on the route. It becomes public in that all the stops on the route can be frequented by other folks,” Jones said.

Macon Transit will take over the route Jan. 1. Jones said he’d work with NewTown Macon to ensure New Year’s revelers were taken care of.